Left I on the News

A leftwing view of the day's news and the way it's presented in the media

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

The "rules of engagement"

Confirming yet again my description of the U.S. "rules of engagement" in Iraq, which can be summed up as "civilians be damned," comes the latest incident:

On Monday, U.S.-led forces fired artillery at the train station in Anbar's provincial capital of Ramadi, "targeting four military-aged males unloading a weapons cache."

A hospital official, Dr. Omar al-Duleimi, said American forces killed five civilians and wounded 15. The U.S. military said the mission had "positive effects on the target," but it denied that civilians were killed or injured in the city west of the capital.

A hat tip goes to Holden at First Draft. I probably would have missed this story, which is buried 24 paragraphs (!) down the story about 50 people being kidnapped in Baghdad. And the issue of the 24th paragraph is no minor issue. The San Jose Mercury News, which I read in print, cut the story off well before that paragraph, and searching on Google and Yahoo news indicates minimal coverage of this story.

And let me say that the despicable, cynical nature of that phrase "positive effects on the target" merits only contempt.